Yogesh Gogwekar's Blog

Pandit Phiroze Dastoor : An Actor turned as Hindustani Classical Vocalist Raag Kalavati is a simple but melodious Raaga which is being sung in the late night belongs to Khamaj thaat. While singing this Raaga Rishabh and Madhyama get omitted. This is romantic raaga which gives stress relief and serenity. Many hold the opinion that Kalavati is derived from Carnatic classical music and it is a new entrant in Hindustani Classical music. Even though this Raaga is not the part of the Kirana repertoire, many singers who have stabilized in Kirana Gharana popularised this Raaga. And Pandit Phiroze Bejanji Dastoor from Kirana Gharana has made it more popular. Normally, Kirana Gharana prefers to have slow-moving melodic elaboration and Pandit Dastoor elaborated this with slow emphasis on notes without undue repetition by using Taal  Jhaptal for small composition. His famous composition in this Raaga was Kahe Karat Raat. From Yogesh Gogwekar. Pandit Phiroze Bejanji Dastoor w...

George Orwell and his two famous novel Animal Farm and 1984 “My Starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice. When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself,’ I am going to produce a work of art ‘. I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw the attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. But I could not do the work of writing a book, or even a long magazine article, it were also an aesthetic experience”. These are the words of British journalist and author, George Orwell, who had written these words in an essay called, “Why I write “in 1946. At the time of reading this essay, I felt that no one has said better than George Orwell how corrupt writing produces corrupt societies and vice versa. According to him, all issues are political issues and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. He further said when general atmosphere is bad , language...

“Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: First Muslim to define Idea of Two-nation theory” Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was a teacher, philosopher and social reformer of 19 th century for whom educational reform was a way of life. He was a pioneer of transferring the education opportunities for Muslim. For that purpose, he established various schools in United Provinces (Today’s Uttar Pradesh) for his community. He founded Scientific Society in Ghazipore in 1863, Opened school in Muradabad in 1859 and Ghazipore in 1864. He raised various funds to establish Anglo Oriental College on 24 th May 1875 whose name has been changed in 1920 as Aligarh Muslim University. “From Yogesh Gogwekar” He was born on 17 th October 1817 in wealthy Muslim family who was close to Mughal court. He was loyal servant of British Empire. He was not in favour of first war of Independence 1857 and written a book to explain the reasons of the revolt. The title of the book was, ‘The Causes of the Indian Revolt’. After se...

Amirabai Karnataki: A Renowned singer and actress of 1940s and 1950s In 1940 and 1950s, there was a songstress-actress who had sung for almost all major composers during her time. According to Rajkumar, a keen documenter from Gulbarga has said that she had recorded nearly 250 songs. Many of her songs were supper hit. Her voice was belonging to the category of untrained, natural singing talents. Her mother tongue was Kannada and along with Kannada, she was also very fluent in Hindi, Gujrati and Marathi. And name of such renowned singer was Amirabai Karnataki. From Yogesh Gogwekar Amirabai Karnataki was playback singer in early cinema popularly known as Kannada kokila. It is being said that Mahatma Gandhi had become her fan after listening her song Vaishnav Jan To. Amirabai was born in 1906 in Bilgi, in Bagalkot District, Karnataka into middle-class family. After completion her matriculation, she with her elder sister Gauharbai came to Mumbai. Her Gujarati song “Mahre te g...

Ajit: A Villain of 1970s in Bollywood films In 1970s, Indian Cinema developed the Villain Character on the screen as underworld smuggler or Don and most of the roles of such character have been played by versatile actor Ajit. He had born on 27 th January 1922 as Hamid Ali Khan in Golkonda, Andhra Pradesh. He did his early education in Warangal and studied in Government Junior college, Hanamkoda in Warangal District. Due to his handsome features and good build, he decided to join in film as hero. One day without informing his parents, he landed in the center of Hindi film industry in Mumbai From Yogesh Gogwekar In Mumbai, he struggled to get the work in film industry. He started working as extra in many films. He started realising that his name Hamid Khan was not giving him luck. Director K Amarnath advised him to change his name and he took Hindu name Ajit means indomitable and this scree-name has become more popular. With this name, he started his career as a ...

Kosala: Understanding A Marathi Novel psychological point Nearly two weeks back, I was reading the book, “On the meaning of life” written by Will Durant. At the time of reading this book, I started remembering one Marathi Novel named as Kosala (Silk-worm) written by Bhalachandra Nemade and tried to understand the life of main character of this novel Pandurang Sangvikar. First time, I read this Novel during my college life. After three decades, I read this novel again to understand the character of this novel i.e. Pandurang Sangvikar from philosophical and\or psychological point of view. This novel was published in 1963. Many scholars and writers in Marathi refused to call this book as novel but well-known multifaceted writer, humourist and beloved personality of Maharashtra, P L Deshpande has said that Bhalchandra Nemade has caught us napping by writing this book. From Yogesh Gogwekar It is being said that Kosala is based on existential philosophy. It is definitely explorin...

Navrang –Golden Jubilee Musical Film of 1959 Producer, director and actor, V Shantaram was seriously injured at the time of shooting bull-fight sequence in the climax of film Do Aankhen Barah Haat and became blind for some time. Later on, he recovered and gained his eyesight. During his blindness, he started visualized different colours and idea of film Navrang means Nine Colours had been born where every colour denotes various rasas or emotions. This was very hit film celebrated golden jubilee hit. Before making this film, V Shantaram made two successful socially relevant films like Do Aankhen Barah Haat (1957) and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje. From Yogesh Gogwekar This is the story of struggling poet Diwakar who was disheartened by his wife who performs only domestic duties by looking after his father and sister. He wants her to be more indulging of his fantasies but she thinks that it is shameless to dress up in colourful clothes and also do the Shringaar for her husband. Therefor...

On the meaning of life: A Book  of Will Durant for generations Will Durant was a philosopher and historian. At the end of the 1930 in front of his house at New York, a well -dressed unknown person has approached Will Durant and asked him in a quite tone,” what is the meaning of life?’ and also told him to provide him valid philosophical reasons to live in this world, otherwise, he will  kill himself. Will Durant tried to give some quick reasons to the meaning of life but that man left and was not seen again. It was a difficult for him to explain to stranger and convince him not to commit suicide. From Yogesh Gogwekar It was a dilemma or there would have been more important questions than this. The simplest meaning of life is joy. Many academics and sages have tried to get proper reply to this eternal query. The question what is the meaning of life?  implies many other questions like why are we here? Is there any God? If so, why do we suffer so much? ...